The Slovaks seem to be slaughthering the French over in Helsinki and the Czechs have an early lead against Belarus in Stockholm. Later tonight Finland plays Germany while Sweden takes on Switzerland. Canada's first game will be against Denmark tomorrow.

Went down to Stockholm last night and saw Sweden beat Belarus at the Stockholm Globe Arena.
Not great hockey, to tell the truth, but at least the good guys won.

Belarus played really well. They were of course the lesser skilled team, but played a very disciplined game, making it really hard for Sweden to accomplish anything. Then former Penguin Koltsov scored for them, making it even more of an uphill battle for Sweden.

Sweden seemed to lack a game plan. In general, they had better players than Belarus, but there was general confusion no tape to tape passes, no one was crashing the crease and every one subscribed to the pass rather than shoot mentality. Utterly frustrating to watch, as it was clear Sweden was the better team, but they had no freaking idea of how to use that to their advantage. The panalty kill was good though. It almost seemed like Sweden was creating more scoring chances when short handed than when even strength. Maybe because that was the only time Belarus stopped playing defense first?

Oh well, we got the three points for a regulation win, and in the end that's all that matters.

And in the Swiss department - they now also beat the Czechs!

So, the Swiss has faced Sweden, Canada and the Czech Republic, and beaten all three.
Whoda thunk, eh?